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Double Bass LDS 2x8 3-way and EA VL208 comparison

#142
jmain said:
Have you seen the carpet? :p

If you check the date on my original post you'll see this was before I was enlightened by your below-referenced posts on this subject. :) Very interesting indeed.
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Mea culpa
 
#144
macmrkt said:
I got my LDS 3x8 3way last week.
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Marty, what's the weight of that monster?

I'm convinced that the LDS 1x8 is way too bright and that the 3-way is overkill at least for me. If I had another made I would drop the mid-range and swap the tweeter for a soft-dome and possibly even go with a long-throw 8".

On another note, I'm a little perplexed how EA is going to have the NM-208 come in under 30 lbs. If they can do it, I think it will be a killer and it will make the LDS 2x8s seem very heavy in comparison.
 
#145
50lbs! Yikes. That's with the 'road spray finish'. I used the 3x8 in the Miami Beach Convention Center this last weekend with a 5 string EUB, no PA support, and a loud 'acoustic' quartet...and it was effortlessly powerful and just wonderfully responsive. A pleasure to use really. I used a WW Super and it was barely pushing.

From what I know about you from your posts, I'd say you are on the right track with the 2x8 ceramics and lower output tweeter. Be sure to ask for 8 or 4 ohm - there is a choice on the 2x8! My 2x8 with Neo's is 39lbs in carpet. So if you do go for ceramic magnet drivers, be sure to get the cart option! I guess that's what is great about LDS. You can get just what you want. It may take a few tries - even I've sold off several to get exactly what I'm looking for. You are right too about the NM208. It will be hard to see how they can (if!) make it under 30lbs. But I bet they can do it under 35lbs.

One thing on tone...someone posted in an other thread very wisely that some bassists want to cut through the mix and others want to blend. I need to do both. I'll take all the clarity I can get even if it means 'dialing' down the tweeter or preamp's treble controls. No problem. To know where I'm coming from, I found the Wizzy way too colored and muted - where others think it just right for DB. I can't 'dial up' clarity so I determined it wasn't right for me.
 
#154
Adrian Cho said:
My guess is that it is actually not thicker sounding but brighter. Especially with the neo 8", I don't think the mid-range is needed. I think the Patterson 2x8s are two-way and so is the proposed NM-208.
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That's my take, too, Adrian. The 2-way 2x8 Pattersons are the most full and also most balanced of the LDS/Patterson cabs I have heard. Mine have titanium tweeters (from Selenium) and I think Ralf did an exceptionally good job with the crossover.

Tom.
 
#155
The Pub 2/280 is also 2-way. After my experiences with the Pub, in hindsight I should have gone for a 2-way when I had my LDS cab built. I'm guessing an LDS 2-way 1x8 with a long-throw 8" would sound similar to the Pub.

I am slowly coming to grips with the sound from my 3-way 1x8. I would really like to get a 2x8 just to get something closer to the sound I want but I'd have to pay the price of a lot more weight which is hard to stomach and I get more volume from my 1x8 than I could ever imagine needing in any situation. However I do love the convenience of the compartment on top and a slightly large cabinet size would make the compartment bigger which would allow me to fit everything in there. Right now everything fits except my AMT preamp.

On the other hand, if EA can seriously make the NM-208 less than 30 lbs, I'd take one of those and just build my own compartment on top to store all the crap.
 
#156
macmrkt said:
One thing on tone...someone posted in an other thread very wisely that some bassists want to cut through the mix and others want to blend. I need to do both. I'll take all the clarity I can get even if it means 'dialing' down the tweeter or preamp's treble controls. No problem. To know where I'm coming from, I found the Wizzy way too colored and muted - where others think it just right for DB. I can't 'dial up' clarity so I determined it wasn't right for me.
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You make some excellent points Marty. I think it depends a lot on the type of music you play which is also a reason to perhaps have multiple cabs although perhaps not like Tombowlus!

Sometimes I really do need to be heard and to really drive things but other times if I'm playing some orchestral Ellington for example, where you should really play acoustically anyway and the bass does not walk all the time, blending in and reproducing my gut sound is more important.

As for dialing down the clarity, you're right that you can't dial it up but I find that no amount of EQ will make the LDS 3-way sound the way I want it to.
 
#157
Adrian - I'd really love to hear you play sometime, not in small part to hear a bassist that can play sans amp with a drummer! Also, to try to discover the sound you are seeking. You don't happen to have any mp3's of one of your bands you can post?

If you go back to LDS, you might want to give Don a clean slate and tell him what sonics you seek...with your skills, I'd bet the two of you would come up with a design that would interest a lot of players.
 
#158
Actually I haven't played a gig with a drummer without an amp for a long time. Although I always make it a point to play non-dress rehearsals without an amp even when there are lots of horns. Just because it's convenient and it is good practice for my chops and to encourage everyone to listen more.

I actually find that an amp is not needed to play with a drummer unless of course they are totally insensitive. The reason I need the amp is for the room. Certain rooms can really swallow sound and the ambient noise level from 100 or 200 people in a room can be so damn loud. In fact even twenty people in a small room all talking can be ridiculously loud. For gigs, I usually always bring an amp now just in case but sometimes I barely have it on. The audio samples I pointed you to were that kind of situation - I had the Pub but barely had it on but then again there was total silence in the room when we were playing. I've played duos where I had to have an amp simply because of the crowd noise. Although I did play a trio gig recently where bringing an amp was inconvenient because I went there directly from a classical string quartet gig. The room was full of people and it was loud as hell. I had to really dig in and in that situation walking was fine but soloing wasn't really possible.

I'm fortunate that most of the gigs I play are acoustic for the entire band and I know not everyone gets to do that. Acoustic means no mics for horns, certainly not for drums and at the most there may be a mic for the piano going through the PA. No monitors on stage or at the most a monitor for the piano with a bit of bass and piano. And that would only be for playing more modern stuff. Anything else is that is more swing in nature is as acoustic as we can make it including no amp for the guitar (using a hollow-body rhythm guitar).
 

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